


Adrift

by CanineKitten



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Betaed, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Falling In Love, Fluff, M/M, Mentions of past suicide, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-06 02:08:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18841468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanineKitten/pseuds/CanineKitten
Summary: Sasuke is the star student and Naruto is the class clown. They seemingly have nothing in common, yet something inevitably draws them together.





	Adrift

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you'll like this fluffy little one-shot! It's been betaed by heartsns ^^

It was a very hot day. All the windows in the classroom were open in the hopes of catching some faint breeze. Naruto was sitting at the back of the room, close to a window, but it didn't help much. He still felt like he was about to melt like a piece of butter in a frying pan.

"Uzumaki!"

Naruto's attention snapped to the teacher standing right next to his desk. He'd been so absorbed in his own thoughts that he hadn't noticed that she was talking to him.

"Sorry?" He said with a disarming grin. He might as well have flipped her the bird for all the good it did.

"Pay attention or I’ll give you detention," she said, and resumed prowling the classroom.

When she had her back to him, Naruto turned to Kiba, who was sitting right next to him, on the next row. Their eyes met, and Kiba made a grimace, making Naruto snicker. He immediately pretended to be working on his texts when the teacher turned to him suspiciously, but the second she turned away again he tried to catch Kiba's attention... which wasn't easy when his friend was staring at the most popular boy in their class.

Naruto followed his friend’s gaze towards the front of the room, to where it was resting on Uchiha Sasuke’s back. Sasuke was class president and hottest guy in the entire school, according to some. Naruto only found the guy cold. Even now, in the sweltering heat of late spring, Sasuke looked like he was perfectly cool, as though some invisible assembly of angels were fanning him with palm leaves. Naruto wanted to snicker at the thought, but held back. Instead he threw a pencil at Kiba's head, and made an exaggerated kissy face at him when he turned to him. Kiba just threw the pencil back at Naruto and got them both detention.

 

\-----

 

Sasuke was sitting in the library, minding his own business, when Naruto, the class clown, came up to him. It wasn’t often that their paths crossed so seeing him made Sasuke a little nervous, but mostly annoyed. What did that moron want?

Naruto stopped next to Sasuke’s desk. Sasuke didn’t look up at him.

“Hi…” Naruto started off awkwardly. “Um… You see I, uh…”

Sasuke hoped that his blatant disinterest would deter Naruto, but no such luck.

"I wanted to ask you out," Naruto said.

Sasuke became rigid. His ears were abuzz with the surge of his pulse, so that he didn’t catch Naruto's next words.

"What?" he asked.

"Um, I said, I wanted to ask you out for my friend."

Sasuke set a shaking pencil to the paper and continued writing, perfectly calm despite the fact that he felt like someone had just rattled the very foundation of his being.

"So? What do you say?" Naruto urged.

"Why doesn’t your friend come here and tell me in person? Then, maybe, I'll make a serious consideration."

"Well... You see, I came here without his consent."

"That makes it even worse. And... he?"

"Yeah. That a problem?" Naruto sounded defiant.

"No. I've been asked out by guys before." He could practically feel the other boy gearing up for his next question.

"And have you ever said yes?"

"I've never accepted neither boy nor girl. If you paid even a little attention to the gossip, you'd know that."

"So... You’re too good for us  _ ordinary _ people?"

Sasuke glared. "I'm too busy for relationships."

Naruto snorted. "That's the most stuck-up thing I've ever heard someone say."

Then he suddenly came to think of something. "Why don't you come to my party this weekend? Loosen up a bit?"

"Will your friend be there?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"Still trying to set us up?"

"Well, believe it or not, but I thought a party would be good for you. There were no ulterior motives."

Suddenly Naruto grabbed Sasuke's phone, which was lying on the desk right next to his elbow.

Sasuke tried to snatch the phone back but Naruto quickly took a step back. Before Sasuke could get to his feet and chase after him, Naruto handed his phone back.

"Call me," he said, and then he left in a hurry.

Just seconds after, the bell rang. 

Looking at his phone, Sasuke realized Naruto had already called himself with Sasuke's phone, meaning he'd have Sasuke's number too.

 

\-----

 

Sasuke had no intentions of going to the party. He barely showed himself at the big parties and partying with the outsiders in school was not something he'd ever felt inclined to do. Not because he was afraid of being an outsider himself – in a sense, he already was – but because Naruto and his weird friends never had interested him. At least they hadn’t used to.

He was sitting by his desk at home, Friday evening, when he got a text from Naruto.

_ Hey! Coming? _

Sasuke looked at the message for a long moment before setting the phone aside without answering. He looked down at his desk where piles of books and notes were stacked, his calculus books at the moment open in front of him. He set to work on it, but only minutes later he was interrupted by another text.

He was starting to regret he ever let the moron have his number.

_ U need to get out _ , the message said.

Sasuke blinked at it for several seconds. Finally, he deduced that the idiot was already drunk.

He put the phone aside, and had just pressed his pen to the paper, when the phone blinked again.

_ Seriously _ , the message said.

In irritation, Sasuke wrote a hasty message and sent it in the hopes that it would stop the idiot from harassing him. Instead he got an instant reply, reading:  _ Omg, finally! I thought you were dead or something! _

Sasuke was very tempted to throw the phone into a wall.

Before he could do that, the phone buzzed in his hand.

_ Please come, for my sake? It'd make me happy. _

Sasuke stared at the message for a very long moment before typing a reply.

_ Where do you live? _

 

\-----

 

"Hello everybody!" Naruto said loudly, and effectively caught the attention of everyone in the room.

"This," he said, shoving Sasuke forward. "Is Sasuke! Give him a warm welcome!"

The room erupted in applause and catcalls. Everyone knew who Sasuke was, of course, and Sasuke heard a few congratulations in Naruto's direction for actually getting him there. Even Sasuke himself was a little surprised that Naruto had managed to convince him to come.

Naruto led Sasuke over to a couch where three girls were sitting, one dark haired, one blond, and one with pink hair that Sasuke knew was in his class.

"Take good care of him, girls," Naruto said, and pushed Sasuke onto the lap of the dark haired girl.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke said, and tried to struggle to his feet without hurting anyone.

"Hey, where are you going?" The dark haired girl laughed and held onto Sasuke. The girl beside her, the blond one, moved to the side to give Sasuke some room to sit.

"Here," she said, smiling sweetly at Sasuke. "Take a drink. And don't worry," she added with a wink when she noticed Sasuke regarding the cup suspiciously. "I haven't had the time to spike it."

The pink haired girl leaned over the blondes lap.

"I'm Sakura," she said, smiling. "This is Ino," she indicated the blonde, who waved at Sasuke despite sitting so close she was practically sitting  _ on _ him. "And this is Tenten."

The dark haired girl smiled mysteriously and winked. Sasuke decided he'd need the drink, and several more, if he was gonna survive this night.

 

\-----

 

"Let's play spin the bottle!"

It was Naruto's inane idea, of course, and Sasuke wondered if he should be concerned about the enthusiasm from the rest of the people. Nevertheless, he let himself be dragged onto the floor and placed within the tight ring of people surrounding the bottle.

"You all know the rules!" Naruto said, and then he explained them anyway. "Whoever spins the bottle, has to kiss the one the bottle points at, or take a shot. And that means anyone, boy or girl."

Naruto was looking straight at Sasuke as he spoke, which Sasuke found really unnecessary. He narrowed his eyes at Naruto, which only made the boy grin wickedly.

"Let the games begin!"

Sasuke was surprised that for the most part, people chose to kiss rather than take a shot. Or they did both. Some kisses were so short they bordered on nonexistent, but they were still kisses, and everyone received a round of catcalls and cheers that got louder the farther out in the game they got. The kisses got more passionate and lasted longer too, but Sasuke didn’t follow that trend. He kept the kisses short, and whenever he kissed a girl, he made sure she didn't get a hold of him. God knows they tried. Sasuke stared wide-eyed the first time two boys started tongue kissing. For some reason his eyes sought Naruto’s, who met his gaze immediately. He leered at Sasuke, who gave him a nasty glare and turned away, pretending he wasn't looking at the kissing boys.

Then the unthinkable happened. Naruto spun the bottle and it ended up pointing at Sasuke.

Naruto shuffled over, grabbed the back of Sasuke's head, and forced him close despite Sasuke’s halfhearted protests.

"You're the most grumpy drunk I've ever had the pleasure of meeting," he whispered in Sasuke's ear and something about the gruffness in his voice made Sasuke shiver.

Then Naruto’s lips slotted over Sasuke’s, and his tongue poked at the seam of Sasuke’s lips. Sasuke barely had time to think about what was happening before he was opening his mouth, allowing Naruto’s tongue inside. The kiss floored him so thoroughly that he didn’t come to himself until Naruto, all too soon, pulled away from him. He sat there, slightly dazed, and had a vague feeling that he should have protested more because Naruto looked really smug.

"Oh my god! Naruto, you’re on a roll today!" Someone yelled.

"And the prize for Uchiha's first ever tongue kiss goes to - drumroll - Naruto!"

Sasuke thought they were all idiots, but he smiled nevertheless.

"Hey, was that really your first tongue kiss?" Naruto asked a while later, after people had grown tired of spin-the-bottle and had resumed talking and drinking.

Sasuke just shrugged. He knew that his romantic relationships, or lack thereof, was carefully monitored by the rest of the school, but he wasn't about to admit to Naruto that the kiss had actually been his first tongue kiss.

 

\-----

 

Later - much, much later - Sasuke listened to the hushed mumbles of two people standing a little away from him, but not so far away that he couldn't hear them. He felt pleasantly woozy.

"Sasuke’s really shitfaced," he heard Naruto say.

"He can stay here, right?" Another guy whom Sasuke didn't remember the name of, intoned softly. He had long, brown hair, which Sasuke had a recollection of running his fingers through.

"Of course! But shouldn't I tell his family? Maybe they're worried?"

The long haired boy looked over at Sasuke, who knew it looked like he was sleeping. He was sitting in a dimly lit room, slumping in a chair, so it would be impossible to see that he was watching them.

"They'll call him if they're worried. Maybe he told them he'd spend the night? Don't worry about it, Naruto." Longhair looked at his watch, and then looked around as if assessing the room.

"I'll be going now," he decided. "Do you need help with him?"

"No, it's fine. See you on Monday, Neji."

When Neji had left, Naruto came over and shook Sasuke gently. Sasuke struggled to sit upright, fighting the onslaught of dizziness.

"Come on," Naruto said, and pulled Sasuke to his feet.

With a lot of struggling, Naruto managed to lead Sasuke to a small, cluttered bedroom, and let him collapse onto a bed where he immediately fell asleep.

Sasuke woke up some time later, or maybe a long time later, he didn't know. He just knew that he had to throw up, and that he didn't know where the bathroom was. He stumbled out of bed, and thankfully Naruto woke up and realized what he needed.

"Down the hall and to the right," Naruto directed him, pointing down the hallway.

When he came back from the bathroom a while later, Naruto was waiting for him with a glass of water which Sasuke accepted gratefully and downed in one go. Then he collapsed face down onto the bed. When he turned his head to the side, he came face to face with Naruto. They looked at each other for a long moment and Naruto smiled at him. Then Sasuke couldn't keep his eyes open anymore and fell asleep.

 

\------

 

After that party it somehow became natural for Sasuke to talk to Naruto every day. They casually exchanged a few words by the lockers, and it wasn't unusual that Naruto dropped in during breaks to just sit and keep Sasuke company.

One evening he joined Sasuke in the music room.

"I used to play the piano," Naruto said as he ran his hand over the tangents of the grand piano standing in a corner.

"I wouldn’t have guessed that."

"Then what would you have guessed?"

"I don't know... Guitar, maybe?"

"Everyone says that. What is it about me that just screams guitar?"

"I think it's because the guitar is kind of a slacker instrument, and you are a slacker."

Sasuke earned himself a slap to the back of his head for that comment, but he smiled all the same.

 

\-----

 

"I'm starting to wonder if you're warming him up for me, or if you're hogging him for yourself," Kiba said one day when Naruto casually strolled into the classroom after having skipped second period.

"Don't be stupid, Kiba," Naruto said. "I'm not interested in him that way. I just think he's fun to hang out with."

"More fun than me, obviously."

"Well... It'll be thanks to me when he comes to our next party, and then maybe you can man up enough to ask him out."

"He'll be coming to the next party?"

"Yeah, I think I'll be able to convince him."

 

\-----

 

Sasuke did come to the next party. This time Naruto was mindful of Kiba’s wishes and tried to steer Sasuke towards him. He had never told Sasuke exactly whom it was that he wanted to set him up with, so Sasuke didn’t suspect anything when Naruto conveniently left to go to the bathroom after introducing them.

He didn’t leave them alone for long, but apparently that was enough to create a disaster. 

When he came back, Kiba was standing by himself, angrily chugging down his beer.

“How did it go?” Naruto asked.

“I don’t get how you can stand him,” Kiba said.

“What happened? I thought you liked him.”

“Yeah, on a distance he’s great, but damn… The second he opens his mouth he’s just insufferable.”

Naruto wanted to ask what exactly had been said. They must have just misunderstood each other. But Kiba seemed unwilling to talk more about it because he soon led the conversation onto a different track.

 

\-----

 

Sasuke disappeared from the party after the incident with Kiba. Naruto didn’t get to talk to him until Monday, and even then it was difficult to get a hold of him. It almost seemed like he was avoiding him… Finally he managed to corner him in the hallway after PE.

“Hey, Sasuke! What’s up?”

Sasuke just turned away and walked the other direction. Naruto hurried after him and grabbed his arm.

“Hey, hey! What’s wrong?”

Sasuke leveled him with a blank glare.

"You said you weren't going to set me up with your friend," he said accusingly.

Naruto was surprised he took it so hard. "I said that before the last party. I said nothing about it this time."

To Naruto's surprise, Sasuke looked hurt.

"Fine," he said softly and walked away.

Naruto let him go. He had the distinct feeling he'd done something really stupid, but he wasn’t sure of exactly what.

 

\-----

 

Sasuke didn't talk to Naruto after that, but that didn't stop Naruto from trying to make him talk.

"Hey, I'm sorry if you were offended. Is it because he's a guy?"

Naruto had to whisper, since they were in the library. Sasuke was trying to do some homework. Naruto was skipping class, as per usual.

"Shouldn't you worry about your grades?" Sasuke said.

"Huh?"

"You're skipping class more often than you're attending. Shouldn't you worry about your grades?"

"Are we speaking again, now?" Naruto said, grinning.

He shouldn't have pointed that out, though, because the very second he did, Sasuke clamped his mouth shut and refused to say another word.

 

\-----

 

Sasuke was walking home from work late on Saturday evening when he heard a very familiar voice. Looking over to an apartment-complex where a party was being held, he noticed four people standing by the door.

"Ew! Are you drunk? Get away!" A girls voice said.

"No, no! Girls, I didn't mean it that way! I just..." It was Naruto’s voice.

"Get away, I said!"

"What's going on here?" Sasuke said.

No one had heard or seen Sasuke approach so everyone looked over at him simultaneously with identical expressions of surprise on their faces.

"Sasuke?" One of the girls said.

"Hi, Sasuke!” Another exclaimed.

There was a mixture of hope, confusion and suspicion in the girl’s voices. He couldn't blame them. Since he always rejected anyone that tried to befriend him, people had finally started losing interest in him. That didn't mean they'd completely given up on him, though. One of the girls decided to use the situation to her favor.

"He was harassing us!" She said, pointing at Naruto.

Naruto looked like he’d been slapped in the face.

"What? I didn't! I just... There was a misunderstanding, and..."

"Really?" Sasuke said to the girl, ignoring Naruto.

"Yes," the girl said, even managing to produce a few tears. "I was so scared."

"I see," Sasuke said. "I'll talk to him."

He grabbed Naruto's shoulder and pulled him along down the sidewalk.

"Hey, Sasuke, I promise, I didn't harass them..."

"I believe you," Sasuke said.

He turned to see if they were out of sight from the girls. They turned a corner and Sasuke let go of Naruto. Naruto swayed dangerously and Sasuke grabbed him again, afraid he'd fall flat on his face.

"You're completely wasted," Sasuke said, staring into Naruto's slightly unfocused eyes. He released Naruto slowly, making sure he was able to stand. "Why are you getting drunk with those people?"

Sasuke had never expected to see Naruto together with those girls. They were infamous for throwing wild parties and for being mean to everyone they thought lesser than themselves.

"Um..." Naruto swayed dangerously. "Because they had booze?" He answered, smiling goofily.

Sasuke resisted the urge to shake some sense into Naruto. Instead he sighed and offered  Naruto a shoulder to lean on.

"I'll follow you home. Can you walk, or should I call a cab?"

"No, we can walk... It isn’t far from here..."

He started walking, pulling Sasuke with him.

"Honestly, why did you get so drunk with people you don't even know?" Sasuke asked.

"Um… Because my mother killed herself?"

Sasuke stopped abruptly, frozen to the ground in shock.

"It's years ago, though," Naruto said. He looked miserable. “Shit, I didn’t mean to bring that up, I just…” He trailed off.

They were both silent for a long moment.

"Er... Can we go to your place?" Naruto asked.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Sasuke said slowly. He was still having difficulties getting over Naruto's revelation.

"Oh..." Naruto bowed his head, hiding his eyes from view. "I just... Didn't want to be alone."

"I can stay with you," Sasuke said.

"Really? But wont your parents worry?"

Sasuke tried to hide the way he froze at Naruto's words.

"No, it's fine. I'll just text them and say that I'm with a friend."

That was explanation enough for Naruto, because he didn’t ask more.

They staggered on, mostly in silence.

"She killed herself when I was five years old," Naruto said all of a sudden. "I don't even remember her that well. How can you miss someone so much when you hardly knew them?" He laughed, but it sounded weak and shaky.

"After she died, my father never was the same again." A deep frown appeared on Naruto's forehead, showing that his father’s reaction might have marred him just as much, if not more, than his mother’s death.

"He died too," Naruto added. "A few years later. People told me it was an accident, but I can’t stop wondering if he too killed himself." He sniffled and sighed.

"I'm sorry for burdening you with all this," he said.

"Don't be. You're not burdening me."

He was about to add something else, but the words wouldn't leave him, and then the moment was over.

"It's just...the season," Naruto said, waving a hand as if indicating the world in general. "They both died in the autumn.”

They walked the rest of the way in silence.

When they arrived at Naruto's small apartment, Sasuke realized that no one else was at home. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected after Naruto told him both his parents were dead, but he hadn’t thought that he’d be living alone. He asked Naruto about it after declining Naruto’s offer to make him instant ramen.

"My old man pays for this place," Naruto said. He crossed his arms and leant against the kitchen counter while he waited for the water to boil.

"Your...old man?"

"Oh, yeah... I call him that because he's old. But he sorta is the closest thing I've got to a father. He's been taking care of me for the past six years. But for the last year he’s rented this place for me because he wanted his privacy, and I wanted to not witness all the women he brought home..."

Naruto scratched his head and smiled. "This place isn’t big, but it serves its purpose."

Sasuke was honestly a bit jealous. Not many people his age had their own place.

Come to think of it, though...

"Hey... How much is the rent?"

"Huh? Oh, um... About six hundred, I guess? But it has two bedrooms. I don’t know why. I guess Jiraiya, that’s my old man, he probably took the first and best apartment and didn’t bother to try and find one cheaper."

The water boiled and Naruto poured it over his cup-noodles.

"So you aren't renting out that other room?" Sasuke said.

“Nope. No one else my age has money enough to rent it, and they're still living at home anyway. And I don't want to live with a total stranger who's older than me." Naruto shuddered as though the mere thought was horrendous. 

"What about me?" Sasuke said.

Naruto looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"Would you want to live with me?"

Naruto looked surprised. "Of course," he said. "But why would you want to?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Same reason as you. I need some space from… home."

Naruto blinked. "But can you afford it?"

"I have a job. If we split the rent I can manage it."

Naruto blinked some more. “What about your family? Will they think it’s okay?"

Sasuke stared down at the floor. "I'll have to ask about it. But would you mind if I lived here?"

Naruto jumped down from the counter, noodles forgotten. "No, not at all! That would be awesome!"

Sasuke was relieved. He didn’t know Naruto that well yet, and he’d worried that he would say no. Naruto grinned at him.

“We’d be roommates. How cool is that?”

Sasuke shrugged, feigning indifference, but he couldn’t hide a small smile of amusement at Naruto’s excitement.

Naruto gulped down the rest of his noodles while he talked about all the things they could do together. Eventually, he started yawning. “We should probably go to bed. I’m beat.”

Sasuke agreed. He followed Naruto into the bedroom. Once inside Naruto started undressing without any warning. Sasuke hurriedly looked away. When he looked back, Naruto was wearing a oversized t-shirt and grey sweats. He sat down on the bed.

"Where should I sleep?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto clapped the mattress.

Sasuke hesitated. "But..."

"What’s the problem? You slept here the last time."

"Then I was drunk."

"And the difference being?"

"... That I was drunk."

"Alright... I do a lot of stupid things when I'm drunk, but lying beside someone in a bed is not one of them. So come over here. Your explanation is not accepted."

Sasuke moved slowly over to Naruto. He wondered what to do… He was in his jeans and he didn’t really want to sleep in them, but he didn’t want to get into bed half-naked next to another guy either. Especially not one that he liked a little too much.

"Do you want to borrow something more comfortable to sleep in?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke was grateful that Naruto had caught on so quickly. He nodded, and Naruto handed him a pair of sweats and a soft, worn t-shirt. Sasuke changed in the bathroom before climbing into bed with Naruto.

He lay down with his back to Naruto, as close to the edge as he could get. It was still a tight fit.

He felt Naruto shift behind him, and suddenly something welled up in him catching him completely off guard. He wasn’t sure what did it… Perhaps it was the unusual closeness, or the calming darkness, or Naruto’s earlier openness. Either way, Sasuke felt like talking about something that he’d never, ever told anyone else.

"Naruto?" he whispered.

"Mhm?"

"... My parents are dead too."

The words were out nearly before he knew he was about to speak them.

He heard Naruto suck in a breath.

"I meant to tell you earlier," Sasuke continued. "But... I've never told anyone else and I'm not used to talking about it."

Naruto didn't say anything, but he placed his hand lightly on Sasuke's arm. It surprised Sasuke a bit since people didn't touch him often, but he let the hand stay there.

"They died when I was eleven, in a car accident. They, and my older brother." He swallowed thickly. "I, um... The officer said that some debris from a passing truck crashed through their front window, and they... The car swerved off the road... They died instantly..."

He wasn't even aware he was crying until he felt his whole body shake.

When Naruto's arms snaked around him, he turned around and pressed his face into Naruto's shoulder, allowing himself to be embraced and cradled, letting Naruto coax the dammed up tears out of him with soothing words.

 

\------

 

Sasuke had hoped that Naruto would forget all about what they'd talked about last night, since Naruto had been so drunk. But then again, forgetting it might have been difficult when they woke up lying so close that not even a sheet of paper could have been slipped between them.

Sasuke's eyes felt sore and swollen when he woke up, and it didn't take him long to remember why. He was a bit embarrassed about the way he'd cried in front of Naruto, leaving himself more vulnerable than he had ever let anyone else see.

He tried to extract himself from Naruto's tight embrace, but that only resulted in Naruto grumbling and holding onto him even tighter. Sasuke finally managed to free himself and escaped to the bathroom. Naruto was awake and dressed when Sasuke entered the kitchen ten minutes later.

He didn’t mention what had happened that night, and Sasuke was grateful.

"Hey, did you mean what you said about moving here?" Naruto asked while he was making some coffee.

“Yeah… I’ve been looking for a chance to get away from home for a while now.”

“Who do you live with? If you don’t mind me asking…”

“My uncle.” Sasuke hesitated. “He’s… Not the most stable of people.”

Naruto grimaced, like he understood. “This place is yours too if you want it.”

 

\------

 

When Sasuke told his uncle he was moving out, he’d expected more resistance. His uncle always complained about how Sasuke was so demanding and expensive to keep around, but whenever Sasuke was home later than expected he was livid. He liked to control Sasuke, that much was obvious. But perhaps he’d gotten enough of him. Perhaps he was just glad Sasuke wanted to leave. Either way, Sasuke didn’t stop to ask questions. He packed his most valued things and favorite clothes in a bag and a backpack, and an hour later he was standing outside Naruto’s door.

Naruto showed him the second bedroom, which had been used as a storage room.

"I think there's a bed underneath there somewhere..." Naruto said.

They spent the day lugging out all the boxes with old things belonging to both Naruto and Jiraiya, and some even belonging to Naruto's parents. After having removed all the excess stuff, they were left with an old wardrobe, and a bed with a lumpy mattress.

Naruto tested the bed. “Oh, wow… It’s terrible.”

“I don’t care,” Sasuke said. He really didn’t. He’d trade a comfortable bed for a lumpy one anytime if it meant freedom.

 

\-----

 

Sasuke wasn’t sure what he’d expected living with Naruto would be like, but he hadn’t thought that it would be as great as it was. Naruto had a tendency to prattle on about insignificant things, and Sasuke wasn’t usually very patient, but he found that he liked the fact that Naruto took care of most of the talking. He could make Sasuke laugh, which was unique enough in itself, and Sasuke found that he really enjoyed spending time with him. 

The weekend after Sasuke moved in, they got drunk on beer that Naruto had smuggled out of his adoptive fathers fridge.

“Isn’t he gonna be pissed when he notices?” Sasuke asked.

Naruto shrugged. “He probably won’t notice.”

Sasuke found that hard to believe, but he wasn’t complaining.

They were sitting on Sasuke's bed and Naruto was scrutinizing the wardrobe like he was trying to solve a puzzle.

"I wonder if it leads to Narnia," Naruto mused.

Sasuke snorted. “Wanna check?”

They opened the wardrobe, which was filled with old, moth-eaten fur coats, but there was no doorway in the back of the closet, just the solid wooden panel of the wardrobes back wall.

“No surprises there,” Sasuke said.

They sank down on the floor next to the wardrobe.

“These coats smells disgusting,” Naruto said and wrinkled his nose. “I wonder who they belonged to.”

“Your mother?”

“No way! She had much better taste than that. Maybe they were my grandmothers…”

“Did you know your grandparents?”

“No. They died before I was born. What about you?”

Sasuke shook his head. “I knew my father’s mother, but she was awful. She hated children. She was really old too, and she died before I was ten.”

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, sipping their beers.

“Hey, Sasuke?”

Sasuke looked up at Naruto, who staring at him with an unusually imploring and thoughtful gaze.

“Remember the first time you were here? At my party?”

“Of course.”

“Um…” Naruto bit his lip and looked down at the floor. “You know… I’m sorry about setting you up with Kiba.”

Sasuke could barely follow the bumpy trail of Naruto’s thoughts, so he didn’t try.

“It’s okay,” he said.

“I just… I thought…” Naruto fiddled with his beer bottle, running his thumb over the frayed label. “Um…” He scratched his temple. “Would you have dated a guy? I mean, if it was someone else than Kiba?”

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. Where was Naruto going with this?

Naruto judged Sasuke’s silence accurately, because the next thing he said, was, “I’m just wondering, since… I mean, that time when I kissed you…” His voice died out.

“I… uh…” he tried again. He couldn’t meet Sasuke’s gaze but looked at anything else. “I just liked kissing you, ya’ know?” He chuckled and blushed, looking down at his hands.

Sasuke could swear he felt his heart lodge itself into his throat. He tried as best he could to hide the hope that he felt. Was Naruto seriously… was he saying what Sasuke thought he was saying?

He wanted to ask but he was in too much emotional turmoil to speak. He knew he’d give himself away if he tried.

“Um…” Naruto was blushing furiously now. “So I wondered… Did you like it too? Would you like to do it again?”

Sasuke wasn’t sure what came over him. One moment he was sitting there trying to digest what Naruto was saying and barely believing what he was hearing, and then he was throwing himself at Naruto, their mouths colliding so hard that he felt the taste of blood in his mouth.

Naruto made a small, surprised sound, but after only a second of hesitation he grabbed Sasuke and held him close, trying to deepen the kiss.

At first they were both so eager that they didn’t manage to coordinate. Their noses clashed, and they tilted their faces in the same direction so that they accidentally broke the kiss, but finally they found the right angle, and the kiss softened and deepened.

Sasuke pushed Naruto down on the floor and kissed him with every ounce of feeling that had been bottled up in him since before he’d even been aware that he was in love with Naruto. He must have been for a long time, because he had been watching him for as long as he could remember. He’d thought it was out of annoyance, but lately he had realized that it was from a completely different reason.

“Now I understand why you were so upset when I set you up with Kiba,” Naruto whispered a little while later.

Sasuke was resting on Naruto’s chest, feeling elated and dazed from the alcohol and the kissing.

Naruto was running his fingers through Sasuke’s hair in a gentle, circular motion.

“It took you long enough,” Sasuke said.

“I’m sorry. I’m a bit slow… For how long have you felt this way?”

Sasuke absently ran the pad of his finger over his kiss-swollen bottom lip. “For a long time, I think, but I realized after the first party.”

“That early on?” Naruto sounded surprised. “I didn’t realize until after you moved in here. I’d kinda suspected it, but I guess I just couldn’t believe it at first.”

“Did you know that you were gay?”

“I didn’t think I was… I used to be in love with Sakura. You know, with the pink hair?”

“Yeah, I remember. You used to be really obstinate and harass her all the time.”

“Ah, yeah… I was a really stupid kid.”

Sasuke snorted. “That was one year ago.”

Naruto chuckled.

Sasuke buried his face in Naruto’s shirt. Finally he could do that. He loved Naruto’s scent. He looked up and met Naruto’s gaze. He expected Naruto to grin or do some other goofy thing to lighten the mood, but he just stared right back. There were thousands of emotions swimming in those ocean blue eyes. Too many for Sasuke to grasp any of them.

“I think I really love you,” Naruto said, his voice soft. “I know it’s early to say that, but… it feels like I’ve known you forever.”

Sasuke smiled. He supposed such a confession should scare him, but instead it calmed him.

“I feel the same way,” he said. He ran his fingers along Naruto’s cheek, caressing the faint, peculiar whisker marks.

Naruto closed his eyes and kissed Sasuke’s palm. “I could fall asleep here,” he murmured.

Sasuke didn’t answer. He was already drifting off.


End file.
